OTTAWA — Calling it “something positive to work from,” Blue Jackets President Mike Priest on Saturday expressed his excitement that the 12-year-old franchise in Columbus has been selected by the National Hockey League to host the 2013 All-Star festivities.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Saturday after the Board of Governors meeting that the next All-Star Game will be played Jan. 27, 2013 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. The 2013 Molson Canadian NHL Skills competition is scheduled for Jan. 26.

Columbus Blue Jackets and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission Awarded
One of the National Hockey Leagues’ Signature Events that will Generate an Estimated
$12 Million in Visitor Spending, Nearly 10,000 Hotel Room Nights and $50 Million in Media Value

COLUMBUS – The National Hockey League’s Columbus Blue Jackets, in partnership with the Greater Columbus Sports Commission, has been awarded the League’s 2013 All-Star Weekend. The announcement was made on Saturday by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Columbus will host the weekend of NHL hockey events and activities January 26-27, 2013 at Nationwide Arena, close to six years after Columbus hosted the NHL Entry Draft in 2007 and nearly eight years after the city hosted the NCAA Hockey Frozen Four in 2005 at the Schottenstein Center at the Ohio State University.

The NHL All-Star Weekend is expected to generate an estimated $12 million in visitor spending* and represent nearly 10,000 hotel room nights. Officials project an estimated 140,000 hockey fans and 20,000 out-of-town visitors coming to Central Ohio. In 2011, the visitor spending number for the All-Star Weekend hosted by the Carolina Hurricanes franchise in Raleigh, North Carolina had generated $11.5 million in visitor spending.

*NOTE: This visitor spending figure does NOT include local spending or use a multiplier, but reflects direct visitor spending only.

As Columbus, the 15th largest city in the United States, grows its position as a premier national destination, the NHL All-Star Game also will represent more than $50 million dollars in national and international media value. Nearly 1.5 million viewers watched the 2011 All-Star Game, which marked a 33% increase from the 2009 game. Due to NHL participation in the Winter Olympics in 2010, there was not an All-Star game that season.

“The Columbus Blue Jackets are one of the nation’s best examples of sports acting as a major economic catalyst,” said Mayor Michael B. Coleman. “When Nationwide Arena was built in 2000, it was the centerpiece of Columbus’ Arena District, which has revitalized our Downtown and our city and gained national acclaim as one of the best redeveloped urban entertainment complexes in the United States. It continues to evolve and propel our city and the NHL’s decision bolsters our reputation as a premier national sports destination.”

“Columbus received high marks from the hockey community when we hosted the 2007 NHL Entry Draft,” said Linda Logan, GCSC executive director. “In addition to having one of the top arenas and game experiences in the League, we demonstrated our capabilities to host the NHL All-Star Weekend at Nationwide Arena and our commitment of rolling out the red carpet to athletes, coaches, sponsors and fans. Also, our recently expanded hotel package has made it possible to accommodate the thousands of NHL fans that will come for the weekend to experience Columbus.”

Nationwide Arena, one of the most beautiful and unique sports and entertainment venues in the world, opened its doors in September 2000. Nationwide Arena is the centerpiece of the Arena District, one of the premier entertainment districts in the country, offering beautiful hotels, exceptional dining and live entertainment. The arena and surrounding entertainment district have served as a benchmark for cities seeking to emulate what has been created in Columbus.

The $150 million facility raises the bar of excellence for sports and entertainment facilities and includes 16 Founders Suites, 36 Executive Suites, 26 loge boxes, 39 Club Terrace Tables and six Party Suites, along with two 80-foot party suite towers, a 70-foot glass atrium, open lobbies and concourses, and a 135-foot light tower at the southeast corner which illuminates the downtown Columbus sky to signal an event happening inside the venue.

Destination Columbus. Celebrating its Bicentennial in 2012, Columbus (see our Check US Out Video) is a diverse, open and vibrant city for young professionals (city’s average age is 32.5 years, 6th youngest in the U.S.) with the nation’s second highest per capita number of college students, with more than 120,000 students among 12 institutions of higher learning. Columbus is centrally located within 550 miles more than half of the nation’s population.

Hotel Community. Columbus is increasingly recognized as an emerging visitor destination for attracting leisure tourists, meetings and events with its array of professional, collegiate and amateur sports, a nationally recognized arts and culinary scene, top attractions, a new Hollywood Casino and more than $200 million in hotel enhancements and renovated meeting space. A new $140 million, 532-room, full-service Hilton Columbus Downtown connected to the Greater Columbus Convention Center will open in fall 2012. It is the largest Hilton currently being built in the U.S.

Shopping and Dining. Home to the international headquarters of brands such as The Limited, Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, Abercrombie & Fitch and Express, Columbus is known for its outstanding shopping with Yahoo Travel naming it the fourth best shopping city in the nation. Easton Town Center and Polaris Fashion Place both offer more than 150 shopping, dining and entertainment options. The Short North Arts District is filled with independent retailers, fashion boutiques and one-of-a-kind restaurants. An emerging culinary destination, Columbus offers an authentic and diverse mix of fine dining and casual restaurants. For all the buzz on the city’s local food scene, check out Facebook.com/ColumbusFoodScene.

Attractions. Columbus has a list of nationally top-ranked attractions including the number one zoo (Columbus Zoo & Aquarium) and science center (COSI) in America, according to US Travel Guide and Parents magazine, respectively. Whether it’s restaurants and lively bars, funky art galleries, sporting events, nonstop nightlife with local bands or a big-name concert, there’s no shortage of entertainment options in four vibrant entertainment districts: the Arena District, the Short North Arts District, the historic German Village and the campus of The Ohio State University.

Sports Scene. Columbus has become one of the nation’s leading sports destinations with some of the top state-of-the-art facilities and was named the #1 Sports City in America by Scarborough Marketing in 2008. 2012 is a banner year for events with the Olympic Team Trials for Weightlifting, NCAA Men’s Basketball Second and Third Round games at Nationwide Arena, the Big Ten Baseball Tournament at Huntington Park and the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championships, the signature event for USA Volleyball in the country.

Columbus’ professional sports scene includes the Blue Jackets, the Crew in Major League Soccer and the Clippers, the AAA affiliate to the Cleveland Indians, and two-time defending minor league baseball national champions. Their home at Huntington Park was a multiple award-winning ballpark over both the new Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, when it opened in 2009. In 2012, the Ohio Machine, a new Major League Lacrosse franchise will begin play.

The region hosts all levels of sporting events in professional, college and high school sports including NCAA Basketball and 19 OHSAA state high school championships. Several major home-grown events include the Arnold Sports Festival, the largest multi-sport event in the world, with over 18,000 athletes from across the country and abroad and two signature running events with the Capital City Half Marathon in the spring and the Columbus Marathon in the fall. On the campus of The Ohio State University, the Buckeyes’ football team plays in storied Ohio Stadium (“The Horseshoe”) and the men’s and women’s basketball and men’s ice hockey team play in the 20,000-seat Schottenstein Center.

Central Ohio, the home of golf legend Jack Nicklaus, is one of the “golf capitals” of the United States and allows you to play a round of golf on one of four of the Top 100 Golf Courses in the world including Muirfield Village Golf Club, the home of the Memorial Tournament (an official PGA TOUR event) and host of the 2013 Presidents Cup.

Corporate Community. Columbus has a robust and balanced business community with many nationally recognized companies that started and/or are headquartered in Central Ohio including: American Electric Power (AEP), Battelle, Bob Evans, Cardinal Health, Honda (one of their few American plants is in Marysville), Huntington Bancshares, Limited Brands and Victoria’s Secret, Longaberger Company, Nationwide Insurance, Red Roof Inns, Safe Auto, Safelite AutoGlass, Scotts, Wendy’s International and Worthington Industries.

That’s one of the best press releases on Columbus I’ve ever seen. Way to go Columbus. There’s so much happening this and next year. I’m so excited. I’m going to order my tickets to the all-star game a.s.a.p.

OTTAWA (AP) — In a season in which very little has gone right for the Blue Jackets, general manager Scott Howson was able to deliver something positive: Columbus has landed the 2013 NHL All-Star game. “We haven’t had a lot of good news here since the season started. This is really a nice piece of news for us to start building some momentum,” Howson said Saturday after attending the NHL Board of Governors meeting during the All-Star festivities in Ottawa.

Give it a year or two and the Blue Jackets and Nationwide will be going to the city and county asking for tens of millions more to make improvemnents to Nationwide Arena. It was bad enough that the city/county/state found $250 million to bail out a business venture owned by the richest people in town—McConnell, the Wolfes and Nationwide Insurance.

So what happens with the massively expensive scoreboard that was just added this year? Wasn’t that something that was deemed necessary by the NHL? The team should have their end of the cost refunded back to them.

Forgive my ignorance of the situation. I know I’m not the only person who thinks the NHL is the worst run organization in all of professional sports.

“The reality of losing more regular-season games as well as the 2013 NHL All-Star Weekend in Columbus is extremely disappointing,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. “We feel badly for NHL fans and particularly those in Columbus, and we intend to work closely with the Blue Jackets’ organization to return the NHL All-Star events to Columbus and their fans as quickly as possible.”

Let’s be honest here; Columbus just isn’t big or rich enough to consistently support a major-league sports team, particularly one that is a perennial cellar-dweller. Let’s stop pretending that we’re anything but a big college town, and own it! For those of us in this city who really want to watch hockey, we can bring back the Chill or another minor-league franchise. Sure, the quality of play won’t be as good as the NHL, but at least the games will be 1.) affordable and 2.) FUN! You can say neither of those things about the CBJ in the last few years.